The Campanile Foundation Turns 25
In 1999, influential philanthropists, including alumni and community leaders, gathered around a table for the foundation’s first board meeting—and what they built is thriving and growing today.
In 1998, San Diego State University’s then vice president of University Relations and Advancement, Theresa Mendoza, was tasked with assembling a philanthropic board for SDSU.
With state funding shrinking and the need for resources growing, Mendoza’s job was to persuade audiences both internal and external that SDSU was worthy of their support. She explained to potential board members that a stronger SDSU could strengthen San Diego.
“I had to build a case for people to invest in the good work that the university does and the economic benefit that this community receives from it,” Mendoza said, intentionally invoking banking terminology. “It’s an investment thing. It’s not the tin cup thing anymore.”
Now The Campanile Foundation is celebrating a quarter century of investing in SDSU and all it has to offer. Here’s a look at some of the many milestones from the people who helped make it a reality.
Open the image full screen.1999 Milestone
The First Board Meeting
The inaugural Campanile Foundation board of directors first met Nov. 11, 1999, in a KPBS studio on the SDSU campus to record the event for posterity. Ron Fowler (’05, LHD), the board’s founding chair, called the meeting to order.
Fowler remembers taking in the sight of a veritable who’s who of San Diego philanthropy. “I’m sitting there looking around the room, and these are all SDSU and community icons,” Fowler said. “It was a little bit intimidating.”
In the 1998–99 fiscal year, SDSU’s endowment stood at $30 million. TCF board members were counted on to supply financial support, grow the university’s endowment, fund student scholarships and new facilities, and endow professorships and academic chairs.
“The Campanile Foundation’s biggest role is to provide money that allows SDSU to do things that they couldn’t otherwise do,” Fowler said. “And if we’re not going to invest in ourselves, then who’s going to invest in us?”
2007 Milestone
Creation of the Campaign for SDSU
The university officially launched The Campaign for SDSU in July of 2007 with a goal to raise $500 million to benefit students, faculty and staff. The initial goal was soon eclipsed and then increased to $750 million in 2014.
In February 2014, the university received what was then the largest gift in its history: a $20 million donation from Conrad Prebys, a San Diego philanthropist. At a March 7 dedication ceremony of that year, the university’s newly opened student union was named the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union.
On Oct. 26, 2016, SDSU announced another groundbreaking gift: a $25 million endowment and challenge pledge from Fowler and his wife, Alexis Fowler (’93). In gratitude, university leaders renamed the College of Business Administration the Fowler College of Business, marking the first, and so far only, time in SDSU’s history that a college has been named.
“Ron has always believed in the potential greatness of SDSU,” said former TCF President Mary Ruth Carleton, who helped orchestrate the campaign as SDSU’s vice president of URAD, at the 2016 naming ceremony. “This gift is his and Alexis’ way to inspire and encourage the university and our donors to believe and to build a top-ranked business school and university.”
The Fowlers’ gift pushed the campaign past its $750 million goal. At its end in 2017, SDSU had received 138 gifts of $1 million or more and raised more than $815 million.
2016 Milestone
Vision for SDSU Mission Valley
Current chair Steve Doyle (’80, ’21) joined the board in 2016 just as SDSU alumni and supporters of the university were forming the Friends of SDSU, an independent advocacy group promoting passage of Measure G, the ballot initiative authorizing the city of San Diego to sell its Mission Valley stadium property to SDSU for campus expansion. It passed in November 2018 and gave SDSU the right to negotiate with the city to purchase the Mission Valley property, which now includes Snapdragon Stadium, a river park and the forthcoming innovation district, among other developments.
Doyle, like many other TCF board members, was a contributor to the Stadium Excellence Fund, created to help pay for Snapdragon Stadium’s construction. He points out that Measure G’s passage grew SDSU’s physical size by 50% and increased the potential for student population growth by 33%.
“We are now able to increase the value of our students’ education, the value of research for our faculty, and from that perspective alone, I think SDSU Mission Valley is one of the biggest. if not the biggest, changes at San Diego State in its history,” Doyle said.
Open the image full screen.2024 Milestone
Endowment Growth and Sustainability
Both The Campanile Foundation and SDSU have come a long way in 25 years. The university’s endowment that stood at $30 million when the foundation was formed has now grown to nearly $460 million.
According to SDSU Vice President of University Relations and Development Adrienne Vargas, who is TCF president and CEO, fundraising over the 25-year time period has reached $1.8 billion. Leading by example, TCF board members have personally contributed $192 million to SDSU since the board was founded.
“The Campanile Foundation board has been a big part of our success,” Vargas said, “and what the board has succeeded in doing is showing everyone that they’re on our team and they have a role to play.”
For founding TCF chair Fowler, it was a role he enjoyed playing.
“I think this fundraising tied to The Campanile Foundation has really created a foundation for the university that they can grow from in the future,” Fowler said. “A lot of people in the first years were seriously questioning what we were doing and [if] we were ever going to get it done. I think anybody who was there Day One—and unfortunately we’ve lost some folks who were integral in getting this done—I think if they could look down on us and give us their take, it would be, ‘Yeah, we did it.’”
In Memoriam
Open the image full screen.
Open the image full screen.Peter Shaw (left) and Fred Pierce, two integral members of The Campanile Foundation
The Campanile Foundation Board at San Diego State University recently experienced the profound loss of two esteemed members. Their dedication, wisdom and unwavering support of the foundation’s vision were invaluable to the organization.
“Peter Shaw and Fred Pierce [’84, ’88] were more than just board members; they were passionate advocates for The Campanile Foundation and its role in the university’s history and future. Their contributions will be deeply missed, and their legacy will continue to inspire us as we strive to preserve and promote the foundation’s significance,” said Adrienne Vargas, president and CEO of The Campanile Foundation.